October 17, 2014

The Art of the Digital Age: Sharing Photos!

Welcome to the “Fun with Smartphones Project.” Pull out your smartphone and share your photos!

PhotographerLarry McNeil (Tlingit/Nisgaá)

The project's formal title is “Larry McNeil and the Art of the Digital Age." The National Museum of the American Indian describes it this way:

Through the use of a camera phone and social media sites like Facebook, art photographer Larry McNeil explores the art of everyday life as perceived by a contemporary indigenous person. Presenting hundreds of his own snapshots made around Washington, D.C., and informed by his unique visual aesthetic, McNeil invites NMAI visitors—in person and virtually—to add their own commentary to his photographs and to upload their own snapshots to his Facebook page.

I’d like to make this fun and interactive, because the emphasis is having us collectively figuring out what “the art of everyday life” means to you. I have some of the sites already online, and I’ll be at the Smithsonian National Musuem of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, October 25, if you want to show up with your smartphone and smartphone photos. We could play with different ways of making photos and just see what unfolds.

At various times I’ll likely ask you to photograph something thematic and share it on the site(s). I think that this will be fun and maybe even thought provoking, but we’ll see, because this will be a group effort.

If Saturday doesn't work for you, come by on Sunday, October 26, to see how the project is taking shape.

On Facebook just look for “Larry McNeil” to participate. Here’s what my page will look like:

Selfies are wildly popular on Facebook, so I decided to make one especially for this project. It’s me at the National Museum of the American Indian in D.C., and even cooler, made with a Nokia smartphone. How cool is that?

Please join us by sharing photographs. Thank you, and get those photos uploaded! All user agreements are between you and the companies, not McNeil or the Smithsonian NMAI. All McNeil is doing is organizing a place to share photographs on existing social networking sites. No legal agreements or any agreements are made with anyone with this project and no liabilities may be extended to any party. The legalese language is made between you and the user agreements at the social networking sites.

We want you to take an active part in this project. But even if you're not a photographer, please come by the museum's Potomac Atrium on the weekend of October 25 and 26 and share your thoughts, or just your curiosity.

Larry McNeil is a photographer, artist, and scholar. He has been teaching photography since 1992, exhibits his work on a regular basis both nationally and internationally, and stays active as a scholar with research and published material. He has earned many awards for his photography and scholarship, including fellowships and purchase awards for various museum collections.